Point of View Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Activism With a Little Kink and Human Sexuality Thrown In

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Tony Perkins's Face on Your TV Should Send You Into Fits of Rage

I've said it so often that I might as well make a song about it, but a quick recap. The Family Research Council is an SPLC designated hate group masquerading as a Christian organization that promotes "family values." What it actually does is defame the LGBT community by publishing discredited studies and misinterpreting legitimate studies to reinforce their beliefs that LGBT are somehow harmful in a variety of ways.

But enough about the FRC, I want to focus on the head of the snake, FRC President Tony Perkins. Perkins, in addition to being a collossal asshat on Twitter, is frequently invited to appear on legitimate news organizations like MSNBC and CNN as a "conservative commentator" and an expert on various things, among them "family values." This is a problem because Perkins is nothing of the sort. He's a bigot and a liar who was caught giving $80,000 to a Ku Klux Klan official in exchange for their mailing list to bolster a campaign that he was running for Louis E. Jenkins for a US senate seat in Louisiana. (How this fact alone hasn't permanently crippled his credibility is beyond me.)

"Homosexuality poses a risk to children." - Tony Perkins citing the American College of Pediatricians, a group of about 100 conservative doctors formed in 2002 as a direct response to the American ACADEMY of Pediatricians' support of LGBT rights.

"This has moved from cultural terrorism to corporate terrorism. That's what this is. Now, back in the 80's and early 90's I worked with the state department in anti-terrorism and we trained about fifty different countries in defending against terrorism, and it's, at its base, what terrorism is, it's a strike against the general populace simply to spread fear and intimidation so that they can disrupt and destabilize the system of government. That's what the homosexuals are doing here to the legal system." - Tony Perkins in response to the decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

"I don’t think you can look at homosexuality and what is taking place without examining the spiritual dynamics here. This is essentially man shaking his fist in the face of God and saying I don’t need you, that we will do it our way. It is the height of humanism." - Tony Perkins on Homosexuality.

"The inclusion of GOProud as not only an exhibitor but as a member of the planning committee indicates a fairly obvious effort to “mainstream” an organization whose commitment to overturning the historic prohibition on homosexuals in the military, the Defense of Marriage Act, and state laws against same-sex marriage is the reason for its existence.

Any group that purports to be conservative should not attempt to destroy the foundations of conservatism itself, and we will not aid and abet such groups by partnering with them.

Attacking both marriage and the military is a blunt-edged assault on the two institutions that, with churches and synagogues, compose the superstructure of our national life. On them hang the future of our children, our economy, and our security. On these things, true conservatives must never waver nor compromise." - Tony Perkins, not a fan of GOPround.

And these are just the things that have been said by Perkins himself. It doesn't even begin to consider the transgressions of the FRC itself, or the quotes by other important officials within the FRC. (Like Senior Fellow for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg saying "Gay behavior should be outlawed.")

And at the end of it all, Perkins is being paraded about by these news agencies as a legitimate commentator and family values "expert" when he is nothing of the sort. Get angry.